


Laundromat- AU August Day 5

by kaylie153



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, AU August, AU Yeah AUgust (Miraculous Ladybug), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Miraculous, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Fanfiction, Laundromat, My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, Romance, Slow Burn, adrien surprisingly being the stuttering idiot, au yeah august, auagust, for miraculous anyway, no miraculous, they're my faves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 02:39:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15571869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaylie153/pseuds/kaylie153
Summary: Adrien spends every other Friday night doing his laundry in a mat that's 15 minutes away from his home, all so he can have time with Marinette.





	Laundromat- AU August Day 5

Adrien’s loft wasn’t anywhere near this laundromat. In fact, it was almost a 15-minute drive without traffic. There wasn’t anything special about it. It even cost a bit more than the one on his very own street. But after his best friend had dragged him there one uneventful Friday night, he’d gone back every other week since.  
Every other Friday night, Adrien, for the past three months, had gone to the far away laundromat, so he could see her.  
Her name was Marinette, her hair was so black that in the right light it shone blue, and her eyes were the shade of a bluebell. That first night he met her, it was luck that Nino knew her. Nino and Marinette had met in college when he went on a couple dates with her best friend.  
Adrien did see her other times. Nino and Alya (who had rekindled their short romance thanks to that chance meeting three months ago) liked to drag them out. Their choice spots were a restaurant that Alya was reviewing for her job, or a club that Nino was deejaying for the night. But he only got true one-on-one time on the Friday they did laundry.  
Every other Friday, Adrien would pile his laundry into his car and drive 15 minutes away from his closest mat, because it was also when she did hers.  
And on that Friday, she was already waiting out front for him.  
Her smile was infectious. When he smiled back, he felt as hot as the sun, inside and out. Marinette had more laundry with her than she usually carried.  
“Alya is out of town for the weekend on some resort critique mission, so she asked me to do her laundry. Although, I think some of your boy’s things are in here too.” Adrien laughed with her.  
The lights in the mat were always so harsh, but they brought out the natural rosiness in her cheeks. She wore her usual laundry day outfit, soft sweat-pant material shorts, and a t-shirt with her college’s logo. Her dark hair was pulled into a ponytail that swung back and forth hypnotically when she walked.  
Adrien had spent most of his life around models and photographers, he knew how much went in to posing a person to hit their angles, how to make someone look beautiful. Marinette didn’t need ring lights, or a photographer yelling at her to turn her head just so. The more time Adrien spent with her, the more he saw just how perfect she was, all on her own.  
\------------  
Normally they weren’t at the mat this long. It usually took about an hour and a half, but with the added basket of Alya’s clothes, it was stretching into two hours. Marinette was looking tired, her blue eyes drooping half-lidded when they went too long without talking.  
“I don’t know how I’m going to get these both back to my apartment.” She stared down at the two offending stacked full baskets. “I brought everything down in one bag… How am I supposed to carry two full baskets? I probably should have planned better, huh?” There was a slight peachy blush on her cheeks.  
“I can help.” Adrien’s face was bright red, even up to the tips of his ears.  
“What?” She looked at him hopefully, her blue eyes shining brightly.  
“Yeah, it’s no problem.” His hand rubbed at the back of his neck nervously. “I can put my basket in my car- and then help you carry these.”  
Alya and Marinette lived right across the street and up some stairs. He’d only been in their place once before. If the gang was going to hang anywhere for a night, it was Nino’s penthouse.  
The girls’ place looked cozy and comforting. Dim lamps, a plush couch, and indoor plants filled the space. Gauzy curtains lifted on a breeze from the juliet balcony that looked out on the courtyard. It was the middle of summer and the warm air added another touch to the welcoming space.  
She offered him a beer. It would just be plain rude to turn it down. They sat across from each other at a small two-person dining table. Marinette took a pull on her beer.  
“You know, Adrien Agreste,” her eyes shone brightly, a fire burning within them, “I don’t know too much about you. I feel like we’re always talking about me. My childhood, college years, my apprenticeship. We need to talk about you more.” She tipped her beer toward him, before taking another sip.  
“I like talking about you.”  
They both blushed.  
“I’m an open book,” he said, crossing his legs, and then uncrossing them. Adrien didn’t actually know how to look casual when he was feeling anything but.  
Marinette took another, slow pull. “Alright…” she tapped her chin with her bottle, “why did you quit modeling?”  
“Because I never wanted to do it in the first place. When your dad is in fashion at the level mine is, your course is kind of decided for you.”  
“Well, my parents own a bakery, but I never felt like that’s what I had to do.”  
“Yours didn’t force you into it either.” She nodded at that, her pretty mouth settling into a frown. “Your parents actually cared about your interests. Still do, I bet.”  
Instead of answering, she pressed on with another question. “What do you want to do? With your life, I mean.”  
Adrien went quiet, contemplating the idea of picking his own future. When he left modeling at the age of 21, his father had been disappointed. But he wasn’t as bad as he could be (like say, in an alternate universe), so he let Adrien have control of his trust fund and had another account that was fed his pay from old ads and royalties.  
He’d spent the past four years catching up to most of his peers in experiences. He met Nino and jumped in to the party scene, only to jump right back out shortly after. There was no niche he found comfort in. Except for the every other Friday night laundry one.  
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “College might be something to consider. Or travelling. I’ve wondered about taking up photography.”  
“That could be really fun. You could take a photography class and see how it feels.”  
Adrien nodded along.  
They talked about that possibility for a long time. Marinette was running her fingertip along the lip of her empty beer bottle. Adrien was admiring the way her lips curved when she smiled and the tiny wrinkles at the edge of her eyes from when she laughed.  
But her out of the blue question made his heartbeat stutter and his palms sweat.  
“Why do you come all the way over to this laundromat?”  
“Wh-what?” he choked out. His hand instinctively went to the nape of his neck.  
She gave him a small, knowing smile. “Nino told me you drive 15 minutes over here every other Friday, even though there’s a mat down your street.” She licked her lips. They were as rosy as her cheeks. If they hadn’t been having this long-dreaded conversation he would have wanted to kiss her.  
Actually, he always wanted to kiss her.  
“Um, well…” he floundered.  
“You know,” she shifted in her seat, leaning onto the table, folding her arms. Under the table, her legs gently bumped his. “You know, Alya thinks that you drive all this way because you like me.” Adrien’s mouth was dry. Their eyes met, complete silence engulfing them. Then she tapped her bottle on the tabletop.  
“Nino says that our mat might be cheaper than yours.” Her lips curved delicately upward, into a smug smile he had never seen before. Marinette looking smug was definitely something he could get used to. “So, which is it?”  
He couldn’t take too long to think, or she’d know he was covering something up. His eyes scanned the table, looking for something to distract her or give him time to process what was happening. Adrien grabbed up their bottles and took them into the kitchen. Not looking into her alarmingly blue eyes, he could finally think.  
Telling Marinette he had feelings for her could mean he’d never be able to see her again, not without feeling like a complete idiot anyway. It would also mean less time with Nino. But if he straight up lied? There was no way he could ever forgive himself if he lied to her, especially when it came to how he felt about her.  
Adrien took a deep breath. “I don’t drive 15 minutes to this laundromat because it’s cheaper. It’s actually more expensive than mine. I drive all the way over here because… because I want to spend time with you. Just you.”  
The apartment was uncomfortably quiet. But the sound of his blood beating through his head and past eardrums was nauseating.  
Her voice was suddenly right next to him. She must have snuck up on him. “What does that mean?”  
He looked down at her. Marinette wasn’t too much shorter than him, but in that moment, she looked so small, all he wanted was to hold onto her until she was smiling again.  
“It means,” another steadying breath, “that I spend hours of my life at a laundromat because nothing means more to me than spending an hour and a half with you, every other week. I would trade that time for alone time in an instant, if it meant all the rest of my time could be taken up by you.” Adrien gently set his hand on her warm cheek. Touching her had his whole body feeling steadier. “I drive to see you every other Friday, because from the first moment I saw you, I was totally in love with you.”  
A breath escaped her. Then Marinette launched herself into his arms. Her lips crushed his in a fervor, desperately trying to convey how much she loved him back.  
They kissed for what felt like an eternity before Marinette pulled back from him. Their lips tingled, their hands felt numb, but both were grinning like absolute fools.  
“You know,” she said again, her voice raspy and a delicate hand reaching up to tangle into his blonde locks, “I used to do my laundry on Tuesdays. But for some reason, during that first week, I happened to have put off my laundry day, and you asked me if I did my laundry on Fridays and I nodded because you seemed nervous and I couldn’t figure out why, but it made me smile. You said that was great because you could use the company when you did laundry. So, my laundry day found its way down the week. I knew from the first moment too, Adrien.”  
He chuckled, glad to know he wasn’t the only one love-sick.  
Then they kissed again. And again. And for a long time after that.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fan fiction in quite a while and in this fandom. I'm going to be trying to post for all the prompts I find interesting, in both AU August and Fluff Month. I hope you like this! Please leave me comments!  
> Check out my tumblr as well: marichatandme


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